British-Syrian Activist Akkad Freed After Damascus Detention

Government-critical narrative

Hassan Akkad's detention in post-Assad Syria exposes a troubling pattern of using Assad-era cybercrime laws to silence accountability journalism. Plainclothes officers with no visible IDs or warrants dragged him from a Damascus café, raising serious questions about whether Syria's new government is truly breaking from the past. The Syrian Network for Human Rights is right to demand a full review of Cybercrime Law No. 20 before it becomes a shield for the powerful.